should be terminated singly in them but be of a much farther Extension and of a perpetual Duration 'T is not to be doubted but that the Apographa's Copies truely taken from the Originals of any part of the Bible were of equal Authority with the Originals themselves 'T was not the Paper nor the Ink nor the Hand wherein they were writ nor any thing Circumstantial of that kind but the Matter it self as dictated by the Holy Ghost that gave Authority to them And wheresoever that Matter is truely contained there is also the same Authority present The great Question in these dayes will be Whether those Copies we have of the Scriptures in those Original Languages in which they were first Writ be True and whether they have not been since Defaced or Corrupted The Satisfaction that ought to be given to this Inquiry must arise these two wayes First by considering the Scriptures themselves in their present posture And Secondly by considering such Circumstances as attended their first Transcription and the various Copies that were then and have been since taken of them I begin with the Latter First the Old Testament we know was delivered over as it first became written to the Church of the Jews and committed by God himself to their Custody And 't was they alone that had the Care incumbent upon them punctually to Transcribe and safely to secure it That they performed this Trust with great Care and exactness and delivered the Old Testament over intire to the Christian Church we have good cause to believe and that both upon general and some more particular ground First upon General ground 'T is notorious that the Jews had the highest value imaginable of their Law and prized it above all else they possessed Both Josephus and Philo tell us that the Jews would rather have suffered a thousand Deaths then that the least thing should be once altered in the Divine Laws and Statutes of their Nation The miraculous power upon which the first Foundation of it was Established had imprinted in that People an indelible veneration of it Secondly it was the Municipal Law of their Countrey and that by which all matters of right were daily Adjudged and by which each mans Property amongst them was maintained and secured Thirdly their Law was not onely the Glory of their Nation and the Foundation of their Political and Ecclesiastical being but it was also the great Title they had to their Countrey The Scriptures contained in themselves the Deeds by which God himself conveyed to them the Land of Canaan and gave them the highest Right to possess it 'T is not hard from hence to conceive that the Jews would be careful of such a Book wherein their Bodies their Souls their Estates their Honour and indeed their All was so much concerned Secondly it appears more particularly and in fact that they were so For after that by Gods Providential disposal Ezra and that Famous Synagogue with him had exactly settled their Canon and delivered over the Scriptures pure and intire to the People at their return out of Babylon the indefatigable Care of the succeeding Mastoriâ—es from those very Times downward to preserve every Letter and Syllable of the sacred Text intire is notoriously known to all that converse with the Jewish Writers even to so great an exactness had they arrived that they knew how often every Letter was used in the Bible And indeed they took such a course to preserve the Original Text intire that it was morally Impossible that the least considerable Alteration or Change could at any time be made in it Eusebius speaks with great Wonder of the Industry and Care of the Jews in this matter Mirabile mihi videtur says he duobus annorum millibus inâ—o majore tempore jam ferè transacto non enim exquisitissimè annorum possum dicere numerum Nec verbum unum in Lege illius esse immutatum sed Centiès unusquisque Judaeorum moritur quam Lege Mosaicae derogavit It seems wonderful to me that for the space of two thousand years and upward for I cannot exactly reckon the number of years not so much as one word should be Changed in their Law but that every Jew would rather dye a hundred times over then derogate in the least from it And that this care of the Judaical Church was by Gods blessing effectual and successful for the securing of the Old Testament from all maime or Imperfection and the least considerable alteration from what it was when it was first Delivered There needs no other Evidence then that our Saviour and the Apostles fully approved it as the Jews were then in possession of it and never charged them with the least Guilt either of Corruption or Neglect in that kind And to suppose the Jews have Corrupted it since considering that it was near three hundred years before our Saviours time translated into Greek and that any after-corruption must needs have been manifestly Discovered from thence and confidering how much of it is quoted in the New is very absurd so thought st Jerome in his time siquis dixerit post adventum Christi predicationem Apostolorum Libros Hebraeos fuisse Falsatos risam tenere non potero ut salvator Apostoli ita Testimonia protuleriâ— sicut à Judaeis falsandâ—erant If any man think the Old Testament says he falsifyed after our saviours coming I can scarce forbear smiling to think that our saviour and the Apostles should quote the Old Testament so as the Jews should falsify it after their times And with the same Contempt speaks Origen and s Austin of such a vain and absurd supposition That we have also good reason to believe that the New Testament is safely and intirely and without any Considerable variation from what it was when it was first written descended down to us will likewise appear first from the Circumstances attending its first Transcription and the Manner and Circumstances of its Conveyance And secondly from its Present condition and posture For the first When the several Parts of the New Testament were first written so very many had imbraced the Doctrine thereof from the Preaching of Christ and the Apostles that it is not to be doubted but that multitudes of Copies were immediately taken and dispersed into all parts of Europe into Asia and Egypt and wheresoever the Christian Religion was by any received Nor can we suppose that men that suffered daily for a Religion the loss of their lives and estates would not be careful Exactly to know the Doctrine of it and to be safely possessed of that great Rule by which they were to be in all things Directed when ' t was so easily to be had Nay ' t is probable that the Apostles themselves might disperse several Transcripts of their own Writings amongst the Christians so innumerable Copies might be taken from many Originals But however Certain it is that the Autographa's of the Apostles the very Originals of the New Testament
all the certain notions we have of another and a farther World and the great account of all invisible things and Secondly because 't is the highest Motive we have to all good living 't is from hence from the authority of this Book that we are chiefly obliged to all that is holy and good and engaged against all the corrupt prastises of humane Life when we consider with what difficulty we attain in the first Case to a fixed and unshaken belief of such things as we do not actually see and how apt we are in the latter to decline from the strict Rules of a good life nothing can seem more necessary then a rational insurance about the great Foundation of all Belief and Practice in both That with a perfect security to our present and future welfare we may rely upon this Book as that great and only Revelation by which God will inform rule and judge the world I have hereby attempted to make evident not only from its own excellent nature and composure and such visible and open effects of a supreme and almighty power as accompanyed its first Publication and lasted till the Church was so far built that the Scaffolding might be safely taken down but also from many other considerations from whence an abundant testimony to its Divinity will appear to result And this task if sufficiently perform'd as 't will give answer to all reasonable doubts and cast a just contempt upon all prophane reproaches so it will also reflect much upon those who though they acknowledge this Book to come from God yet not acquiessing singly in the conduct thereof declare it thereby insufficient to those great ends for which it appears to be intended and such are those of the Roman Church on the one hand and all sorts of Enthusiasts on the other who by a twofold superfoetation that of endless Traditions and that of new and continued Revelations have rendred the whole Scriptures if not useless Yet as to their great end and design altogether deficient and imperfect My Lord I seek not by this Dedication to countenance a defence of the Bible nor any way to secure my self against the just reproach of an ill performance the first would engage me in an open affront to a Christian State and the other oblige me to be too injurious to You and that Candor and love to Truth you possess 'T is alone that great Honour and that entire affection I have for Your Lordship that Interests Your Name in this matter though there is nothing less needed by You than discourses of this nature Yet there is nothing more due from me then an open and publick profession that my self and what ever I do is devoted to Your Service I know my Lord into what hands I commit these Papers when I present them to You that great hazard to which they are exposed by your first view will sufficiently inure them to all future dangers I consider that Judgement with which they are put to encounter and want not a due sense what the success must needs be I know also your remedying kindness and am enough secur'd thereby am in this case upon the same terms of relief that he was that discoursed before Caesar who thus address'd to him Qui apud te Caesar audent dicere magnitudinem tuam ignorant qui non audent humanitatem My Lord as You were pleased before to allow that Method I used in discovering the Unreasonableness of Atheism So I promise my self some acceptance in the account I now give You of the Reasonableness of Scripture Belief as I know no better Property can be convey'd to the World then a Rational Possession of God and his Word So I am also much pleased that I have spent some part of my time in doing what You required To whom I owe all that is due to the most Generous and most lasting Friendship and shall ever be as much as I can be which is but what I ought to be My Lord Your Lordships most true Friend And most Humble Faithful Servant CHARLES WOLSELEY THE REASONABLENESS OF Scripture-Belief THat the being of the Christian Religion depends much upon the Credit and Authority of that Book we call the BIBLE there needs little to be said to prove it The instance were as hard to find as 't is unreasonable in it self to suppose that any man should at the same time reject the Bible as Fictitious and yet embrace the Christian Religion as True For it must either be granted there are No Laws any where extant that do formally constitute this Religion which is absurd to suppose of any Religion or they must needs be admitted here No man can be a Jew and renounce the Olâ— Testament nor he a Mahumetan that disclaimâ— the Alchoran Because to deny the Authority of those Books is visibly to rase the great foundation of all profession and practice in those two Religions Although the fact of Christs being in the World and many other things relating to the Christian Religion be attested to by other writings yet the Scriptures are the onely means by which we come to a sufficient knowledge of a Religion established upon that foundation and which alone contain the Laws and Constitutions of such Religion No considerable attempt has been at any time made to set the Christian Religion upon any other Bottom then the Bible to promulge any other edition of Christian Laws to write any Counter-Story of Christ and the Apostles or is there extant in the World any different account of their Doctrines from whence might be deduced a Contrary or other systeme of the Christian Profession from what is recorded in this Book Nor is it reasonable to believe there can be any foundation lay'd whereon to erect Christianity where the Bible is excluded For whatsoever has otherwise then by the Bible by writing or tradition descended down to the World touching the Christian Religion has been either by its Friends or its Enemies For the Latter no mention is made in any Heathen Writer of any Christian Laws nor indeed of any considerable matter at all relating to the Christian Religion farther then what we find in the Bible it self And so amounts to no more then a Cumulative help to its Credibility And 't is evident those of the Heathen who have at any time opposed the Christian Profession and disputed most against it have opposed it as contained there That Book being granted on all hands to comprise its Doctrine and to be the stated rule of that Religion For the former whatever has been by the writings or Traditions of such who embraced the Christian Religion and gave their Assent to it conveyed down to us can never induce any other Rule of that Religion then the Bible For besides that all such Collateral traditions are in their own nature relative to the Bible dependant upon it and such as must necessarily stand and fall together with it they have also come from the hands
of those who have themselves Universally proclaimed the Bible in all Ages to be the great and infallible Rule of the Christian Religion So that if Christian-tradition be credited the Authority of the Bible is thereby established And if it be dis-believed in thaâ— there can be then no good reason to receivâ— any other matter touching the Christian Religion upon the credit of that conveyance To retain therefore the name of a Christian and yet disown the Bible is to become a perfect Problem No such man can produce anâ— Laws or Rules of his Religion nor give anâ— account wherein they are contained or bâ— whom or by what Church with an exclusion of the Bible they have been at any timâ— Received Nor can any man rationally make a Partiaâ— rejection of the Bible and retain a Christian Profession from thence in a Limited sensâ— of his own For a man to say he receive the Bible as he receives other credible writings as a book generally True and written by men that meant honestly and well but believes it not written with an Infallible Spirit nor to carry a Divine Authority along with it nor submits to it as such is to say a thing extreamly incongruous to all good sense and to indulge himself in a perfect Absurdity For the Bible comes to us with a claim oâ— God's Authority attending it speaks to us in his Name is a Book that disowns all humane contrivement proposeth it self as written by Divine Inspiration and Immediate Direction from God admits of no Composition for its Reception In such a case there can be no Middle-way but either we must receive this Book and submit to it as such or else reject it with the justest contempt imaginable It is in nothing to be credited if it be not in Truth what it pretends to be For there cannot be a more vile and pernitious falshood imposed upon the world then to counterfeit a Divine Law and to pretend that to come from Heaven and to be sent us from God which is nothing but the product of Men. Whoever will admit these premisses that the Scriptures were not written in every part of them by the infallible direction of the Holy Ghost when they themselves tell us that they were so must needs descend to this conclusion that they then contain the most impudent falshood and were composed by the worst designers against mankind The Christian Religion and the Scriptures being so related and standing in so near a conjunction as they do The being of the one having so necessary a dependance upon the Truth and Authority of the other 'T will be easily granted to be the great concern of the Christian Church in all ages to assert their Divine Authority and to justify that Book to be written by men that were indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divinely inspired and to be sent us from God as that supreme Law by which he would inform Rule and Judge the World He that undertakes this Province and designs to himself such a service is obliged First To consider with whom he is like to encounter And to proportion his defence to those various assaults the Scripture are usually exposed to This being admitted which it ought to be that no man can with any good Reason close with the Christian Religion and at the same time Renounce the Bible That Maxime of St. Austin being undeniable that Contra Scripturas nemo Christianus There are but three sorts of men by whom the Scriptures can at any time be generally Attact and from whose principles their sacred Authority can receive an Universal Invasion First Such who wholly deny the being of God and consequently of all Religion for God and Religion are Relatives such who wallow in the mire of an Atheistical profession Secondly Such who admit the Being of God and a supreme and first cause but deny his providence and believe he is no way concer'd about the World nor troubles himself to exercise any Rule or Dominion at all over it Thirdly Such who admit the Being of God and the existence of Religion and providence but reject the Christian Religion as not True and embrace some other in opposition to it Of those first-born Monsters of Mankind that Anomalous off-spring who deny the Being of God whose principles contain in them the utmost dreggs of all humane Apostacy and are of all others the most wild and absurd for as Cicero sayes Deos esse ita perspicuum est ut is qui negat vix eum sanae mentis existimem The Being of the Gods is so evident that no man can be thought well in his wits that denies it A previous consideration is necessary to whatever is said upon this or any other Divine subject and therefore I have already contested with such and dispatcht all my concernes with them in order to this matter and the last converse I mean to have with that evil generation of whom it may most truely be said They are not only the avowed opposers of all Religion but indeed they are Hostes Humani generis The common enemies of all mankind Who by denying a Supreme Being above demolish the great support of all well-being here below Of this belief they were heretofore at Athens in those primitive times of Atheism and first dawnings of â—speculative Irreligion upon the World and therefore Cotta tells us in Cicero that when Protagoras began his Books with this Introduction to Atheism De Diis neque ut sint neque ut non sint habeo dicere Atheniensum jussu Urbe atque Agro est exterminatus Librique ejus in concione combusti And he adds Ex quo equidem existimo tardiores ad hanc sententiam profitendam multos esse factos quippe cum poenam ne dubitatio quidem effugere potuisset For those secundary Enemies to the Bible and together with that of all Religion such who admit the Being of God but deny all Providence and Divine Rule over the World such who out of shame disown the grand principle of Atheism but yet by this Method secure all the effects of it to themselves Of those a preliminary consideration on ought to be had A previous confutation of such principles being of absolute necessity to make way for the discourse in hand For it must needs be a vain and impracticable project to indeavour to prove any Book to be Divine and a Law given forth from God if there be no such Law any where in Being which we are sure there never can be if God no way concernes himself with what men do nor exercises any Dominion at all over them 'T is plain such principles do uno ictu dispatch all Religion out of the World put a perfect period to all Divinity and render it a thing very absurd to submit either in our belief or practice to any thing as Divine To this purpose Cicero concludes in his first Book De nat Deor. Sin autem Dii says he neque possunt nos juvare nec volunt
wise people laughed at those Mysteries Never any man scorn'd any thing more than Caesar himself did his own gods and as Tertullian observes pleased himself often in that he was able to make his gods feel the power of his anger What a Childish folly 't was then to believe that a Roman Consul lost his whole Army because he slighted the feeding of some young Chickens or that Marcus Crassus was therefore slain by the Parthians because he despised some fopperies of Atteius If we look off from their publick Religion and the general practice of their Divinity and take a view of what the Wisest and Best thought what a poor product were all their Notions compared with the Bible What a Midnight were men in in respect of Religion in that clear Sunshine of Humane Knowledge Socrates who saw the furthest of any man in the Age wherein he lived into the vanity of the Heathen Theology and died for a pretended Contempt of it for the Charge that Melius one of his Accusers brought against him at Athens as Laertius sayes was Jura violat Socrates quos ex majorum instituto suscepit Civitas Deos esse negans alia vero nova Demonia inducens The first Philosophical Martyr that we read of has yet left but little better Divinity behind him Nor can I perceive he had any design or ability to reform the World that way for he Answers his Charge by a flat denial as appears by his Apology in Plato and his whole carriage sufficiently assures us 't was out of choyce and not out of fear that he did so Sometimes also before he advised others to content themselves with the Religion of the Countrey they lived in And we find likewise in Plato how uncertain and doubtful he was about that great point of the Soul's Immortality and a future state of Men after this life and could determine nothing with himself positively about it though he seems to incline that way and to think it the more probable opinion that the Soul is Immortal Much in the same way that Cicero speaks of it in his Tusculane Questions who gives it but a probability And as Plato does in his Phaed who sayes in the Conclusion of his discourse that he is not certain about it nor will not be confident of it 'T was doubtless a high degree of uncertainty in his thoughts about those matters that made him say He knew not whether 't were better to dye or to live and that 't was a foolish thing to be troubled about that of which we have no certain Knowâ—edge whether it be to be desired or feared And when he came near to his end he expressed great contentment in the hopes of being with Hercules and Palamedes in the next World but still qualified those Hopes with this doubtfull Parenthesis In case the Soul be not extinguished with the Body He chose indeed to be rather a good Moralist and to deal in those Notions wherein he found some certainty then to attempt much in the speculative part of Divinity being wholly unable to frame any satisfactory Notions to himself about the Being of God and Divine Worship He often plainly declares that of the Nature of God and the business of another World he was wholly ignorant and many of the wisest Philosophers acknowledged as much and thought those things utterly beyond the reach of all Humane Knowledge all Notions about them to be full of uncertainty and therefore chose to submit to the Vulgar Sentiments rather then perplex themselves with doubtful and unsatisfying Speculations and run the hazard of contradicting the publick Religion of those Countreys where they lived Plato the famous Divine Philosopher who exceeded all the Graecian Philosophers as much in the Speculative part of Religion as Socrates did in the Practick though there was more true Divinity uttered by him then by any of the Philosophers where he first had it is not hard to determine yet attended with marvellous vanities and intollerable Errours ' T is not easie to forbear smiling in reading over the account he gives of the Creation of the World the matter of which he makes to be Eternal the fabulous conceits he has about that and many other things of that Nature 't would tire out any ordinary patience to read A great promoter he was of that gross Idolatry of Damon-Worship for he sayes That when men die their Souls become Daemons and if their merits be good they are Lares if Evil Lemures if different Manes Of which St. Austin gives a large account De Civ Dei lib. 9. Ch. 11. Though he speak much of one God yet himself then as all the Platonists since held that many gods are to be Worshiped and in his Timaeus he calls Saturn Ops Juno and others Gods and sayes the Daemons and Heroe's are to be Sacrificed to and the good Estate of the City commended to them Cicero observes likewise out of his Timaeus that he spake with great obscurity and uncertainty about this one God Sometimes calling him an Eternal Mind And sometimes calling the Sun Moon and Stars all parts of the World the Souls of men and whatever the Heathens worshipped Gods And at last concludes that the whole of his Principles per se sunt falsa sibi invicem repugnantia Are in themselves false and self contradictious Aristotle that great Luminary of the Rational World a man of a most sagacious wit who travelled with such unparallel'd success through all the Theorems of Nature and all parts of Humane Knowledge what Mushrom-Divinity has he left behind him With what obscurity uncertainty and confusion with himself has he spoke of those two great fundamentals of all Religion the Being of God and the Immortality of the Soul to such a degree that many of his Disciples since have avowed that he denied the latter If out of Aristotles Books we should but extract a Model of his Religion it might be for a Monument of wonder that such a Giant in all Natural Knowleage should die such a Child in Divinity Cicero who carried the Top-Sail of Learning in the Age wherein he lived to whom the elder Pliny gave this Testimony That he only had a Wit equal to the greatness of the Roman Empire why did not he compose a right Systeme of Divinity and leave a good account of those things to posterity behind him from whom might we with more Reason have expected it he designing the Nature of the Gods and Divinity for his Subject In the beginning of his Book he tells us with what unequal Sentiments men had debated those matters Some of the Philosophers doubted whether there were any Gods as Protagoras Some possitively affirmed there were none as Diagoras and Theodorus Cyrenaicus â—â—â—i vero Deos esse dixerunt tanta sunt in varietate ac dissentione constituti ut corum molestum sit annumerare Sententias Nam de siguris Deorum de locis atque sedibus Actione vitae multadicuntur Deque
his summa Philosophorum dissentione certatur And those says he that do acknowledge the Being of the Gods have such various and different Opinions about them that 't were an extreme trouble to reckon them up For about the shape of the Gods their imployments and what they do and the places where they are there are endless dissentions amongst the Philosophers Now why did not he out of all the several Sentiments of the Philosophers Compose a true notion of his own unite their differences and rectifie their mistakes by one common Truth instead whereof we find him doing little else but repeating their various opinions which amount to no less in number then four or five and twenty and in Diogenes Laertius there is good store more and generally condemning them all as false and extravagant unworthy the names of their Authors otherwise famous and learned men and at last sits down finding his own inability for so impracticable a task and has left the World not much more informed then they were before in that point The Sum of his three Books of the Nature of the Gods is indeed a perfect Condemnation of the whole Pagan Religion for he sayes directly All their Gods were but Men and reckons up their Ages their Garments their Children their Ancestors their Alliances and plainly confesseth their Temples were their Tombs and their Sacrifices and Ceremonies representations of their Lives and the whole of their Religions Superstition and Vanity But when he came to speak of the Supreme Deity that made all things yea the Heathen gods themselves he openly declares his own Ignorance and says he can sooner admire then utter any thing and better declare what the Deity is not then what it is And concludes upon the whole Vtinam tam facile veram Religionem invenire possim quam falsam convincere I would I could as easily find out true religion as discover that which is false Himself Socrates and some others of the wisest of them saw far into the Impotency of their own Religion but I could never yet find that any of them arrived at any ability to compose a better Nor can any man in any Age be produced that without Revelation has been able to give the world aright or satisfying information about the Being of God and the Truth of Divine things It having been in fact according to what is observed by the most excellent Mornay in his discourse De veritate Relig. Christ Denique evolve quaecunque a Priscis mundi sapientibus To be short says he Amongst all the things which the Wise men of the World have written here and there of the Service of God ye may hap to find some one good saying in a hundred years and some one other in another hundred But when ye have gathered them all together as diligently as you can yet shall ye be able to make of them neither Rules nor Grounds nor scarcely good Problems So greatly is man by his corruption both blinded in things concerning God and helpless in things that concern his own welfare T is true that many points of the Christian Religion especially the three Grand Fundamentals of it The Being of God his Providence and Rule over the World and the Immortality of the Soules of men have been even through these Heathen Ages two ways acknowledged and justified First Implicitely and more Remotely by the general and most corrupt practice of the Ethnick-Religion What greater proof can there be of a God and that the World still thought there was something above them then their grossest Idolatry All Idolatry apparently taking its rise from the corruption of mens natural notion of the True God What meant their Imaginary Deities for every business and for every part of the World and their applications to them upon all occasions to seek their favour and appease their anger but that they supposed a Supreme Disposal of things and that the World was Ruled by a Divine Providence And what signified all their fictions about Heaven and Hell and their adoration of Daemons and the worship of dead mens Souls which they made to be Mediators to the Gods and variously called them Lemures Lares Manes Larvae some of which if they were the Souls of their friends they fancied stayed about their Houses and Dwellings for their protection others were more at Large some were good Daemons and above Others Infernal and Below as appears by that of the Poet. Vos O mihi Manes Este Boni quoniam superis Aversa voluntas Whence came all this but from an obscure confused notion of mens existence after this Life and a belief of the Souls Immortality In the second place more expressly and explicitly from the Judgment of some particular persons amongst them who have uttered here and there some fragments of Truth and have sometimes spoken in justification of these Main Points So Plato and others have spoken somewhat of One God Though it ought to be noted that the Being of One God was never generally and distinctly acknowledged in any Heathen Country nor was there ever a Law made in any Heathen State to establish the Being and Worship of one God Nay some have supposed that no particular Person did ever purely by Natural Light determine that there was but one God But that such who have spoken of it had it from a Tradition originated in Revelation So says a Learned Author in reproch of the Grecian and Romane Learning That setting aside what they learnt out of Egypt they could never by themselves determine whether there were many Gods or but One Cicero Plutarch and others have spoken fully about Providence and others of them have said much to justifie the souls Immortality so much has been acknowledged in the Heathen World that the sparks of Divine Truth though under much Rubbish have been there secretly kept alive and so much as does sufficiently assure us that the great Fundamentals of the Christian Profession are most Suitable to the Rational Nature do only Rectify its Depravations and have been some way witnessed unto in the darkest times And to that end we often make use of their Testimony But 't is not imaginable that God should leave the world without any further discovery of himself their chiefest good or any further direction toward an eternal happiness which is mans chiefest end then what we find the world without Revelation has attained to Nor can there be a stronger evidence of the necessity of some Revelation then the condition the world has been in without it The whole of the Heathen Divinity having been some way or other tainted and is reducible to one of these three heads either erroneous uncertain or imperfect Most of it erroneous much of it uncertain but all of it imperfect If we enquire how mankind came to be benighted as they have been in these things of greatest concernment How such a flood of Idolatry and Superstition came to overslow the Gentile-world Two things ought to be
cannot be admitted as such are all 〈◊〉 them found peculiarly appurtenant to the â—iblâ— and cannot belong to any other Books or Writings or to any other Pretences to Revelation whatsoever Having thus established these two general points First that 't is a thing in it self reasonable and fit to believe that there should be some Revelation made from God to the world some Supernatural Laws promulged as the great Rule of mens lives here and Gods Judgment hereafter And that these Laws should be somewhere or other extant upon Record that Mankind might be fully assured and ascertained about them and that they might be visible to all that there should be some such Book as the Bible pretends to be and that 't is greatly unreasonable to believe the contrary And Secondly that in the Judgment of right Reason there are many general qualifications that must necessarily be appurtenant to such a Revelation wheresoever 't is extant and by which 't is but reasonable that Mankind should make a Judgment of every pretence to it and that all those qualifications are found punctually and peculiarly belonging to the Bible and cannot be applied to any other extant pretences to Revelation whatsoever I shall now proceed to the second thing proposed which was a more distinct and particular proof and endeavour to make it appear that this Book is indeed sent us from Heaven and is in truth that Revelation we have good cause to expect from above and that we have all those Reasons concurring to make us acquiesce in it as such from whence a Judgment in such a case ought finally to result That there is so much Evidence to be given in to prove its Divinity as no man ought to desire nor can reasonably expect more in a matter of such a Nature And so much that where mens corrupt Interests and prejudices are not Predominant will appear sufficient to every impartial enquiry And this shall be prosecuted in this Method I will these several ways consider this Book First In the time of its conveyance to the World Secondly In the way and manner of its conveyance Thirdly In the success and effects of it since its conveyance And lastly In it self in the matter of it as we now find it And from each of these considerations will a signal Testimony be given in to its Divinity and when we have taken a view of the whole we shall find that the Book both in the Matter of it and in all the Circumstances that have at any time attended it does eminently relate it self to God as its Author and cannot be reasonably judged the product of any Humane contrivement whatsoever For the first When we reslâ—ct upon the â—â—me of this Books conveyance we shall find two things of very great weight offering themselves to our consideration First the Antiquity of those things it relates to us and informs us of And Secondly the Antiquity of this 〈◊〉 iâ—â—â—lâ— since composed and delivered to us with such a relation The Contents of this Book â—â—ch aâ— far as the first foundations of the Earth and the Heavens and give us an account of Gods Revelations to Man since his first mâ—â—â— and Original and of an Orall and â—erâ—all intâ—â—â—â—â—â—se between God and the World for two thousand four hundred and old years before it was any where extant upon Râ—â—â—â—d or any part of it written Which no other Bâ—â—â— since the World began so much as makes 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—â—â—ce to If we consider the Revelation Histoâ—â—cally contained in this Book 't is what was 〈◊〉 the beginning and of the same 〈…〉 the World it self If we consider the Edition of it in this Book and the time 〈◊〉 this Books aâ—â—ual Publication with all the aâ—â—â—tional Revelations contained in it we shall find this Book to be the first born in its kind to pâ—ecede all other Writings whatsoever and in truth to be extant while Thales Mileâ—â—us Hamer Hâ—rmes and the most primative writers the world had were unborn and unthought of Moses wrote of the God of Abraham long before any of the Heathen Gods had a written mention made of them God pleasing so to order it that although the Revelations he made to the World were not written from the beginning yet they were written long before any other Writings were extant And his own Laws were first recorded and all other Writings are of a subsequent Date to this Holy Book First I will evidence this in point of fact and shew that it is so that to this Book is indeed due the right of Primogeniture and that all other Books are of a much after-edition And becondly examine what reasonably results from thence toward that proof of the Bible we are about To all which this must be premised that when we speak of the Bible as thus Ancient we intend actually no more of it then the Writings of Moses the whole Contents of the Bible being above four thousand years in a gradual publication and the Bible it self above a thousand and six hundred years in writing for so long it was from the time that Moses writ to St. John the revealer nor need we intend more to justifie the Antiquity of the whole because 't is all there virtually contained all the rest is superstructed upon that as its â—oâ—ndation and every several part of the Bible after Moses till the Top-stone was laid appears evidently to be writ in direct pursuance of what Moses at first delivered and so much St. Paul affirmed before Foelix that he taught nothing but what was long before extant in Moses and the Prophets For the first That the Books of Moses are in fact the most Ancient I find both Jews and Christians have been greatly concerned to make it manifest as judging it a point that did greatly credit their profession and highly justifie that Religion they adhered to Josephus and others of the Jewish writers have much insisted upon it and amongst the Christian Writers Justin Marter Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus Eusebius Cyrill of Alexandria in his Books against Julian St. Austin and others But most especially Justin Martyr and Eusebius Justin Martyr in his Parenaetick to the Graecians because they used with great Arrogance to boast of the Antiquity of their own Learning and Religion and upon that account to look with great contempt upon others proves against them out of Pagan Authors and those chiefly their own beyond all reasonable denial that the Books of Moses were of much greater Antiquity then the most Ancient Writers they could make a pretence to And that the Christian Religion being the natural issue of those Writings founded upon them and derived from them was no new or upstart invention but indeed the first and most Antient written and unwritten Truth the World was possessed of and the same thing is afterwards more largely and distinctly proved and made good by Eusebius in his Evangelical Preparation Who thus concludes Quare omnibus Diis ac Heroibus Graecorum multo Vetustior
is in it self directly opposite to the whole Corporation of Debauched and Evil men destructive to all corrupt Doctrines and Practices whatever and perfectly ruinous to the Interest of the Devil in this World of which there needs no other proof but an appeal to the Judgments of all sober minded men Never was there any Doctrine brought to light so Holy and so excellent A Doctrine that has visibly the highest tendency to those two great ends of all Religion the Honour of God and Mans present and future happiness No Instance can be given of any particular Duty enjoyned Destructive to mans true happiness but all perfective of it The strictest self-denial has a Recompence proposed to us of a hundred fold in things of a far more Noble and excellent Nature and most suitable in all such cases to a Rational choice The result of the whole is this Whenever Miracles are wrought to establish such a Doctrine as in the judgment of right Reason is likely to come from God we are upon the highest and most unquestâ—onable ground of Assurance that we can be Whenever a Miracle is wrought to establish a contrary Doctrine 't is the highest Trial But still God is pleased to order it so that we have ground sufficient to oppose and will sâ—â—nd it and â—â—â—kon in onely as such Whâ—â—â—ver consults thâ— writings of the Primiâ—iâ—e Châ—â—sâ—â—â—â— will and there were two things upon which they â—hâ—â—â—lâ— inâ—â—â—â—d and by the strâ—nâ—th whereâ—f the Châ—â—stian Religion made its sâ—â—st Enâ—â—aâ—ce and â—avelled thorough a great part of the Heathen world The Excelâ—â—ncy of its Doctrine and the Miracles wrought â—o confirm it And these two conjoined give â—s the mâ—st inâ—aâ—â—ible Assuâ—ance of Religion we are capable of in this World The Miraâ—â—es justify the Doctrine and the Doctrine reflects a Testimony back to the Miracles and in that Conjunction the proof is Invincible And so 't is in this case of the Bible For we can have no more then what we find here The Best Doctrine with the Highest Attestation Whoever warily considers our Saviours Reasonings with the Jews shall find him going upon this Ground For as he frequently justifies his Doctrine from his Miracles so he likewise often justifies his Doctrine to be in it self Divine Corresponding to the Scriptures of the Old Testament and in direct pursuance of what Moses and the Prophets had taught And so makes the testimony of his Miracles unquestionable thereby For such a Doctrine accompanied with such miraculous Evidence must needs be from God and can admit of no Rational Opposition And therefore in discoursing this matter in hand neither ought to be insisted on neither the Doctrine nor the Miracles Distinctly and Separately from the other but Both urged in that excellent Conjunction in which they are handed down to us Thirdly If we look upon this Book in the Success and Effects of it since its Conneyance We have from thence still further evidences of its Divinity and more Rational perswasions to derive it from God as a Book of his own Composing and about which he has exercised a peculiar Care And that upon these two Grounds First That this Book though written at several times all so long since past and some of it before any other Books were extant has yet in its passage through so many Ages escaped all the dangers to which it has been exposed and is preserved intire to us to this day Secondly That this Rock and the Religion contained in it has made its Entrance into the world and gain'd an Acceptance amongst Mankind in such a way and by such Means as are Peculiar to it self and no other Religion can make a Pretence to In such a Way as when we rightly consider it 't will seem Absord and Ridiculous to all common Reason to suppose that the wickedest Counterâ—eit and the â—â—andest piece of Imposture about God and Religion should ever be able so to do Or indeâ—d that any Book of Religion should upon such Permes arrive at such a Reception but one that contain'd the Highest and most Evident Truths and had the great God for its Author For the first 'T is true that other Books very Ancient and written long ago as we have good ground to believe have descended Intire to this very Age. But herein the passage of the Bible through the chanel of so many Ages is Distinguished from all other Writings not only that 't is some of it much Elder then they and upon that account more liable to Loss and Decay but that no Book or Writing the world was ever possessed of has had that violent Opposition made against it nor such Designs formed for its Ruine and Extirpation as this has had Others have met with a quiet and peaceable passage This has been often beset with most Keen and Inveterate Enemies Besides that great hazard so much of the Bible was in as then was Extant in the days of Josiah when for ought appears by the Story there was but one Copy and that had been lost for sixty eight or sixty nine years and was hid either in the Rubbish or else in some secret part of the Walls of the Temple for it was found when the Temple came to be Repaired and in all probability was there hid during the wicked Reign of Manasseh by some malicious Idolaters with an intention utterly to extinguish it Which might easily have been done in a way that had made it Irrecoverable had not a Divine hand over ruled and secured it Besides this and some other Hazzards the Bible has scap'd of a like nature we read of two famous and most Implacable Enemies furnish'd with all Humane power that with all their might and skill have beset it Antiochus Epiphanes under the Old Testament and the Empâ—rour Dioclesian under the Nâ—w This Antiochus Epiphanes called likewise and much moâ—â— truely Epiâ—â—aâ—â—â— the Mad and the Furious was prophefied of and plainly foretolâ— by the Prophet David in the eighth and eleventh chapters of his prophecy He there calls him a King of fierce countâ—â—â—â—ce and says His heart should be against the hâ—ly Câ—venant and that he should have indignaâ—ion against the holy Covenant Which was the Law of God the Scriptures then Extant This Antiochus came in the times of the Maccaâ—ees and most cruelly destroyed and wasted Jerusalem and made it his grand business to ruine the Jews and utterly extinguish their whole Religion and Worship Dedicated their Temple to Jupiter Olympius Erected an Altar therein for the Worship of that â—â—â—l and in contempt of the Jews caused many Swine to be slain and offered up in sacâ—â—fiâ—e to him and as the surest way to pat a pâ—rfect â—â—nd to the Religion of that Place and People with utmost diligence made search after their Law and wheresoever he sound it iâ—â—â— diâ—tâ—ly Burnt and destroyed it and thâ—eatned â—â—st exquisite torments and Death to any that should dare to Conceal or Retain it Of which Josephas gives us the Relation
are the reasonable bounds of all such future debates as are bottom'd upon them but ought not to be imposed when the principles themselves are in question nor upon such who make it their business to oppose them as erroneous and mistaken When two Mabumetans are in dispute the authority of the Alchoran is to them a proper Umpirage because a principle granted by both But when a Mahumetan disputes with a Christian the proof of the Alchoran it self must precede any proof he can make of Religion from thence because whatever is it self under question and doubt can never be a Rule to determine other controversies by Nor ought this the fact whereof is so verified to us to seem strange that men should often mistake and generally differ and divide upon all such acquired principles as they do that 't is hard if not impossible to find an instance wherein the whole World have been able universally to take one step together beyond those first and irrisistible institutes of Knowledge and those primary Elements of a rational Being 'T is no way strange to see what is laid as a foundation by one should seem an absolute nullity in the mind of another What one man resigns up himself to as his guide another should reject with contempt If we consider first the difficulty wherewith all acquired knowledg is attained and the various paths men tread towards it How hard it is to reduce things to a Harmony with the rational Nature With what labour and sweat of the mind we come to measure out things by the line of our Reason and to find out those proper Mediums of demonstration that lie in a direct line to the truth of any proposition And how natural is it to doubt and object to the utmost in all rational progression Secondly with what various abilities the World is capacitated for all intellectual attainments and how differently men do improve their knowing faculty First principles arise from the Truth of our Reason in its naked existence but all second Principles from the exercise and improvement of it How few be there that travel so far as their own Reason would guide them or suffer that noble faculty to do what it would do What unequal concerns have Mankind about Truth 'T is the Jewel and delight of some 'T is an absolute Drug to others Some men make the Talent of their Reason ten Talents oothers fold up their knowing faculty in the slumber of a drowzie sensuality The greatest part of the World sit down satisfied with what they do know not what they might know And choose a lazy enjoyment of ignorance and errour rather then an inquisitive possession of Truth Men are not only born of several Statures in the knowing part but they continually render themselves so by the various and different improvement of those abilities they possess Thirdly the faculty of our Reason it self renders all things capable of dispute and debate that are not bounded with visible contradiction to its own Being and are beyond the limits of those primary Laws it necessarily gives to it self and makes various determinations about all such disputable matters and very often where we may well suppose an equal ability on both sides men differ about the same thing The cause whereof must not be imputed to any innate defect in the rational Nature as if God had made us with a lame faculty for whoever denies the truth of that must needs retort the lie to himself because he has no other faculty to judge by but the true Reason of it lies collaterally either first From the difficulty relative to our Reason in the Objects 't is conversant about from whence may well be supposed to arise various and different Sentiments for all things are not in their own Nature capable of positive determinations we meet with few things without some difficulty but with very many things that greatly pose us with some things so much out of our reach that they exceed all bounds of comprehension are beyond the Verge of Problems and serve only to shew us the limits of a finite understanding Or Secondly from the want of such perfect information as is requisite to ground a compleat and perfect Judgment upon There being not a little share of uncertain guess and conjecture mingled with most of our Knowledge of things which nothing but experience can deliver us from Or Thirdly which is most general and an undeniable evidence of Mans fall From the Byass of some Interest or Concern whereby Men are engaged or some natural propensity and inclination they are born with that opposeth and undiscernedly prevails over the true and genuine issues of Reason inslaves them to appetite and sways the Judgment another way 'T was therefore a prudent observation that one made heretofore upon those various Sects that arose amongst the Philosophers in Graece that Qui fuerunt ingenio severo rigido moroso querulo aroganti ij Stoicismum suns amplecti qui vero fuerunt ingenio molli stadiosi tranquillitatis atij ij fuerunt Epicurei qui denique fuerunt ingenio civili modestoque liberali ij Peripateticorum Doctrinam sunt secuti And Aristotle in his Discourse of the Summum Bonum sayes Vnumquemque prout animo affectus est ita de Summâ— Rono judicare atque inde oriri quod alij Summum Bonum collecant in Divitiis alij in Honoribus alij in Voluptate 'T is from hence and from those many other circumstantial impediments we are liable to in all our rational determinations and not from the faculty of our Reason in it self considered that hath been derived that great variety of Judgment and Opinion whereby the World in all the Ages of it hath been divided Of this second sort of acquired and accidental Principles is Mens assent to and belief of the Scriptures as a Book penned by Divine Inspiration and being of extraordinary Mission from God 'T is not of those first born Principles of Reason from which we cannot dissent without an apparent absurdity and therefore is not within the compass of those first praerequisites to all debate and discourse and the standing boundaries of all Ratiocination but is of such a Nature as admits mens doubts quaeries and debates about it And the absolute positive belief of it is not to be imposed upon any man but all men reasoned and discoursed into an assent to it upon such grounds as are most suitable to such a subject and mens satisfaction about it Natural Religion is born with men and is connate with their Beings and must be supposed But all supernatural Religion is discoursed into men and makes its entrance that way Though it be true that in all Sciences there must be some Principles granted yet they ought to be no other nor need to be then such as are general and common to all Mankind and such as lie adequate to every mans Reason And not such as are only the property of one party and are peculiar
to men of one perswasion Whenever men in order to the founding of any Science lay down positions and Principles upon which they proceed if such Principles be beyond the first and common rudiments of every mans Reason though in themselves never so true yet they ought to be subject to debate and admitted questionable in all Reasonings about that very Science Not to admit some universal Maxims is the way to make Mankind certain of nothing and to admit any particular mens Opinions as indisputable Principles is the way to inslave the World to every party The Scriptures are the first Principles of Christians but not of Men. The first of Christian Religion but not of all Science And therefore we ought to begin their Proof against all Antiscriptural opposition from the common Notions of every mans Religion and Reason and from thence induce an assent to their Divine and Sacred Authority which we shall find God has made sufficiently evident to a rational and impartial inquiry Secondly The Testimony given by the Holy Ghost in the Minds and Consciences of Men to the Truth of the Scriptures though it be the most convincing Evidence that can be given to them and that way God is pleased to reserve to himself of giving men an unquestionable satisfaction about that and all other Divine things yet 't is not to be urged in proof of the Scriptures against its professed Adversaries And that upon two accounts First Because the blessed Spirit it self is not a common demonstrable Principle amongst Mankind and so cannot be made use of against those that know no such Testimony nor admit the being of any such Principle Nothing but what a man does assent to can with any good Reason be urged upon him to prove what he does not assent to To go about to prove the Scriptures by any Evidence arising from the Holy Ghost must needs be visibly absurd because there is no other way to prove that there is any such thing in Being as the Holy Ghost but by the Scriptures themselves So that what I am about to prove must first be admitted before I can make good the existence of that Medium I take to prove it by Secondly Whatever Evidence the Holy Ghost gives to any man to assure him of the Truth of any proposition that Evidence as such can never go beyond his own Breast nor can I ever prove any thing by it as it is a Divine and infallible Evidence because such Evidence is no way Communicable to another but in an ordinary way Nothing is visible to another in such cases but the Reasons I can produce The Divine illumination I have within my self to convince me that such Reasons are Cogent and prevailing can never be so demonstrated as to convince another that has no such illumination The illuminations of the Holy Ghost in the Minds of Men are no other way to be conceived of then that he is pleased to propose the right Grounds and Reasons upon which things are to be believed and to convince and satisfie the understanding that they are so and to bring men to acquiesce in Conclusions by assertaining them of the Truth of the Premises 'T were Heterodox and false and one of the worst sorts of Enthusiasme to say That Divine illumination were not always accompanied with rational Evidence And that any thing were the product of the Holy Ghost in the Minds of Men for which no Reason could be given 't were most unsuitable to a reasonable being and most contrary to the manner of Gods dealing with Men all the intercourse between God and Man being maintained by the truest exercise of our rational faculties and no otherwise Whoever rests assured from a Divine Testimony of the Truth of the Scriptures as coming from God may deal with an Antiscripturist by those Grounds and Reasons upon which such Testimony is built But will vainly and to no purpose urge that satisfaction he receives of the validity of such Grounds and Reasons from such a Testimony when that Testimony can be no further made Evident then by such Reasons and Arguments as he is able to produce for it of the sufficiency of which every other Mans Reason in an ordinary way must necessarily be the Judge To this present undertaking there ought also to be this praeliminary Consideration that as there are divers Things of divers Natures true so there are various ways of rendring the Truth of them Evident and Mediums of proof proper and peculiar to each This is visible in Aethicks in Physicks in Mathematicks and in all other Sciences When we discourse of the Bible divers things will come in question the Truth of which by various Mediums of proof must be established First in the general whether it be reasonable to believe that there should be any such Supernatural Law as this sent from Heaven or no! This is to be cleared from the exercise of our own Reason and the common principles of such natural Religion as every man is born with Secondly whether this Book as 't is now proposed to us be in the Matter of it such as is likely to come from God and to be that Law by which the Supreme Maker of all things would Rule and Judge the World This must also be cleared from that Natural Divinity that lodges in every Man 's own Breast and those primary Notions of God and Religion which all unprejudiced Reason assents to and which are antecedently supposed to all discourses of Revelation and whatever is Supernatural Thirdly whether this Book was written by those Persons whose Names it bears and in those Times wherein it avows it self to be written Whether such Miracles were wrought such Praedictions fulfilled All things of that Nature being matters of fact must be proved to us by credible Testimonies and by such means as can ascertain us about a matter of fact and a thing long since past He that demands to be satisfied about a matter of fact long since past and yet denies to acquiesce in Historical Evidence is so absurd as at the same time to propose a Doubt and resolves against all way of Answer Fourthly whether this Book as now we have it be the same it was when it was first written and have not been since corrupted or changed The proof of this depends upon what may be rationally urged to make it credible That this Book should still be secured by a Divine care and to render the ways and means Historically Evident by which such a Divine care in all Times and Ages hath been exerted And so in all other things that may be in doubt about the Bible there are proper inducements to our belief as will appear hereafter and such as the Nature of such a subject requires And he that will not acquiesce in a belief of things upon the Evidence they are capable of though perhaps not so full and convincing as some other things will afford declares himself to be obstinately willful and absurd Nothing
perfect Attributes the terms of our pardon must come from God 'T is not in man to find out how God shall forgive him or to to Chalk out the Tracks of Divine Justice and Mercy toward himself nor will his guilt be removed nor his thoughts be at rest till he know Gods mind about it Nothing can assure us of Reconciliation with God but what is from Heaven appointed as the means of it No natural knowledg can give us any certain direction about it nor is it reasonable to believe it should If Humane Nature had no absolute security in it self of its first state how can we expect it should restore it self when once degenerated What did not remain perfect when it was so is much more unlikely to recover again out of Imperfection to be so Every man may know he is degenerated from what he ought to be and so may reasonably collect from what he once was but no man can reason himself into a ceâ—taâ—n way of Recovery The whole world have subscribed to their own Apostacy but could never agree upon any certain remedy How miserably have Mankind tired themselves and to how little purpose in finding out what would appease Divine Anger and compensate for their disobedience No man ever yet worsâ— ipped any God but he made some Offering to him in hopes that might indemnisie him and be taken in Lieu of his own punishment Men have at a Venture offered up all parts of the world in Sacrifice have tried all experiments victimis lavacris and by all other means their best guesses could suggest to them to obliterate their own Guilt and to procure D vâ—â—e favour but never were upon any suâ—er gâ—ound then their own vain fancies for acceptance Agaâ—hias tells us in his second Book of the Peâ—sian war that the Persians were wont to solemnize a great Holy-day once a year which they called The death of Vices in which as an eminent piece of Devotion they slew multitudes of Serpents all other sorts of wild Beasts and thereby thought they should Execute all their Corruptions safely bury their sins The Philosophers abounded with remedies foâ— this Epidemical Disease Some thought to cure the evil of the world in a Moral way some in a way Mathematical and some by Religious Ceremonies But alas The right way of doing it has lain hid from Ages and Generations till God himself made it known and revealed it from Heaven VVhat a trifle is the Blood of a Sheep or an Oxe to satisfie for an Offence against an Infinite Justice At how easie and cheap a rate might men Sin and God be satisfied And what a publick tolleration of evil were it if the Blood of Bulls and Goats might take away sin and the lives of unreasonable Creatures Commute for the sins of Men The consideration of all these things does directly Steer us upward and point us to a dependance upon Revelation to give us a clear distinct and satisfying Knowledge of God of our selves and of this whole World How man came to Rebel and Sin first to enter By what ways and means Indemnity may be obtained And upon what terms we may be again reconciled to God and accepted This precious discourse the design of which is to render it a reasonable supposal that there should be in the general some Divine Revelation some Laws Supernatural promulged to the world and that Mankind should not be wholly left to the conduct of Nature can be no way ungrateful to those who are already possessed with a due esteem of the Scriptures and do assent to their verity because 't is to re-inforce one of the greatâ—st supports to all Scripture-belief Nor will it seem impertinent to those who are any way ingenious in their doubts and enquiries about this matter because 't is naturally necessarily the first step that is to be taken in order to their satisfaction But may be very well offensive to such who shall design to themselves a disbelief of the Scriptures and make it their Province to weaken their Authority and render all proofs brought for them insufficient because it goes far towards an evident and apparent determination of the whole cause against them Does indeed petere jugulum of their chiefest pretences and virtuâ—lly breaks the very Back-bone of all Antiscriptural opposition for if there be such a thing as a Revelation mâ—de to the World as that which the goodness of God and the wants of men seem necessarily to call for If God have given to Mankind a Law supernatural Where is this Divine Law to be found 'T is but reasonable to suppose it somewhere or other upon Record This Book we call the Bible must needs be it and will certainly carry it against all Pretenders the natural dictates o right Reason being Judge What Book or Writing is there extant under Heaven that can with any tollerable colour counter plead the Bible upon this account A man must be horribly Hood-winkt in his inteâ—lectuals that does not evidently see 't is impar coâ—gressus between the Bible and all other Pretenders From what paâ—ts of the world will you fetch such a Supernatural Lâ—w by which we may suppose God to Govern Mankind one either fit for him to Give or for us to Receive according to that Natural Knowledge we have of him and of our selves and that Rational Judgment to which all Supernatural pretences ought to be subjected Where wâ—ll you find a Systeme of Divinity that makes known to us in a way suitable to our natural conceptions of him the most of God and of his Nature we are able to comprehend delivers us from all the intanglements of Humane Nature by ways and Methods so pâ—opoâ—tioned thereunto and discoveâ—s to us ceâ—taâ—n tracks to the highest happiness here and hereafter we are capable to enjoy Shall we go to the Laws of Lycurgus and Solon because they pretended to Revelation Can any man be so stupid Those Laws were chiefly Municipal and made no pretence to what we enquire after Shall we imagine the Books of the Sybills because they were thought to be filled with many Divine secrets contained such Revelation The greatest part if not the whole of them is long since perished out of the world which is proof sufficient they were none of those standing Laws by which God designed to Rule and Judge Mankind Some excellent Greek Verses there are indeed extant at this day which go under their Names but they are upon good grounds by the most learned supposed to be none of theirs And iâ— they were the Christian Religion and the Truths contained in the Bible are so clearly described and the Pagan Religion so directly and strongly confuted therein that the Scriptures can scarce have a greater Testimony given to their Divinity Shall we go to the inspired Entâ—usiasticâ—l Poâ—ts for this Revelation What a ridiculous foppery would that seem to one that has once conversed with the Bible And what a wild extravagant Religion should we
erect from the Theology of Hesiod The Hymnes of Orpheus The Poems of Homer The Odes of Pindar Or from Virgil or Ovid Shall we look back to the Heathen Oracles for this Revelation To those of Delphos Dodona Jupiter Hammon and the rest Who can be so marvelously vain Besides the consideration of that general uncertainty and sometimes falshood that visibly attended their responses the Records of those Oracles the Books wherein their Responses and Divinations were contained are long since perished and lost Shall we goe as far as Numa Pompilius and his Goddess for the old Roman Theology That s impossible to be retrived The Religion of Numa is long since vanished out of the World and the Books wherein it was contained were openly Burnt And upon this occasion were they burnt long after the death of Numa in the Consulship of Cornelius and Bebius there were found in Rome two Coffins in the one whereof was the Body of Numa and in the other fourteen Books of Numa's seven of them in Latine containing the Laws and Ceremonies of their Religion and the other seven in Greek concerning the Study of Wisdom and in these latter was much contained not only destructive to the Gods and the Religion of other Countreys but also to his own and to the Roman Profession of which the Senate well considerdering resolved it as best that the whole fourteen books should be openly burnt together Which was accordingly done Of which we have an account at large in Valerius Maximus and Varro Or shall we at last come to that Arabian Prophet to Mahomet to set up his Collection of Precepts his Alchoran which he tells you a hundred times over God was the Author of and that all Mankind could not have writ a syllable of it to confront the Bible 'T were to the full as wife a project to light a Rush-candle and resolve to out-face the Sun as to encounter the Bible with such Mean and Ridiculous Stuff What an absurd Foppish Flam is that Alchoran Evidently a Cheat in every Page of it A confused Medley of wicked contemptible trash heaped up together by a Triumvirate of Arrians Jews and Pagans all known Impostors in the Ages wherein they lived and so transferr'd by the History of their own times to all future Generations God has made every Reasonable Mind not some way or other Debauched or Pre-ingaged a Touchstone sufficient to discover such counterfeit Metal Some part of it seems rather like the Ravings of men Distracted then any product of Common Reason It tells us that Men were first created of Shadow That the Earth was made in two dayes and that God fastened it to the Mountains by Anchors and Cables That Mahomet cut the Moon into two pieces and Cemented it close together again with a multitude of Such Raving and Distracted Fantasmes In many things 't is evidently self-contradictious and what is said in one place is directly overthrown in another Mahomet himself sometimes plainly Confessing He knows not whether He or His be in a way of Salvation for which very saying I wonder the people did not stone him The whole of it a Rapsody of most prodigious Absurdities A câ—nlused Inconsistent Composure Principles of Heathenisme Judaisme and Christianity all Generally Corrupted and so wildly patcht up together that Mahomet might very well declare what he did That he thought No body would ever be able to underst and his Law Whatever we sind in it that carries the least Resemblance of Truth is apparently stollen out of the Old and New Testamâ—nt though for the most part visibly Falsified and inverted It tells us that Jesus was sâ—cretly conveyed inâ—o Heaven and that somewhat in his likeness which was not himself was nailed to the Cross That He was not really Crucified but that the Jews were Abused and Deluded It tells us also that in the 14th of St. John's Gospel where mention is made of Sending the Comforter that there was much sard of Mahomet which the Christians have since Razâ—d out Which is to father a ridiculous and impossible falshood upon them for that Gospel was Extant long before Mahomet was born or thought of for he was not born till the year of Christ 571 and published most parts of the world over not onely in the Greek Copies of it but in divers Translations in the Syriacke Arabick Ethiopick and Latin tongues and was far enough from the possibility of any universal Alteration that could be made by the Christians in Mahomets time That which the Alchoran tells us in general of the Bible and the Christian Religion directly overthrows it self and Mahomet thereby has utterly subverted his whole Fabrick For he says that Moses and Christ were both sent from God and that the Old and New Testament are Divine Books that God imparted the Law to Moses the Psalms to David and the Gospel to Christ But pretends that as the Gospel succeeded the Law so the Alchoran does the Gospel Now if the first be true I am sure the latter is false unless God can contradict himself which is impossible For both Moses and Christ have delivered very many Doctrines directly Contrary to His. The Bible and the Alchoran are sufficiently Inconsistent And therefore wherever the Old and New Testament are acknowledged to be Books Divine and from God the Alchoran ought reasonably to be Rejected as a Vile and wicked Delusion If it be asked as usually it is How that Religion came to spread so far and the Disciples thereof to be so Numerous if it be so Vile and also so absurd a Couzenage as indeed it is Such a Question will be easily answered if these Three things be considered First The Mahometan Religion ows its original to the Sword more then to all its pretences besides 'T was Mahomets being a General that made him pass for a Prophet Nor was his Alchoran at first received in any Nation where his Sword did not make way for it 'T is a Religion that was at first Introduced and has been since Propagated and Vpheld purely by Force Not Discoursed into men but Imposed upon them Mahomet himself often declares that God did not send him to convert the World by Miracles but by the Sword and by Instruments of War And indeed There is not a Chapter in his Alchoran where he does not preach Fire and Sword Warrs and Massacres for the advancement of his Law Secondly Where-ever that Religion is introduced all Inquirie into it is absolutely forbid and men are Made without the least Tasting or Chewing to Swallow the whole Body of Mahomets Divinity at Once And by this means Ignorance is grown so natural an Appurtenant to that Religion that wherever 't is setled it does not only silence all Discourse of Divinity but totally ruines all Learning and brings men into perfect Enmity with all Liberal Sciences 'T is an easy thing to spread the Basest Metal as well as the purest if we can prevent its Trial. Falshood and Truth are upon Even termes
Moses invenitur And indeed the most Ancient of the Graecian Gods as appears by their own Histories were not of a much Earlyer date then the Warrs and ruines of Troy which Moses preceded some hundreds of years Josephus says in his first Book against Appion That the Graecians had no Elder write then Homer who lived as Pliny says two hundred and fifty years after the Trojan Warr which War was about four hundred and seven years before the Olympiads began according to Solinus two hundred and seventy years as Herodotus thinks three hundred But 't is clear from his own Poems that he lived some very considerable time after at least one hundred years by the Lowest calculation Moses was so long before him and so much his Predecessor that 't is granted by all that make mention of him That he lived some hundreds of years at least four hundred and odd before the Battle of Troy before the beginning of the Olympiads not less then eight hundred and forty years Till which time the Graecian History is generally Confused and Impâ—râ—â—â—â— nâ—r had they any certainty in Stâ—ry till thâ—n which Varro positively affirms and Eusâ—bâ—â—â— also proves out of the Annals of Africaâ—us who tells us Usâ—iad Oâ—â—mpiadas niâ—il exploratum in Histori Graecorum mâ—â—tur sed omnia consusis conscripta temporiâ—us sunt Post Olympâ—ad â—s vâ—ro quoniam quadrâ—â—unto dilâ—gentissime oâ—nia notahantuâ— Nulla penitus confusio temporum su And indeed till that time there is little certainty in any Story but that o the Bible He lived bâ—fore the building oâ— Rome about eight hundred sixty and five years for Rome was founded in the beginning of the Seventh Olimpiad which was twenty five years after their first beginning But suppose Homer was not the first Graecian Writer as Euschius and others think and perhaps truly enough that they had others before him 'T is certain and agreed to by all They had no Letters amongst them till Cadmus nor any Written-â—earning for some considâ—â—able time after him And â—tis well known that Cadmus was Later then Moses Those that carry him highest make him but contemporary with Josuah and he is as some think more truely to be reckoned of the same time with Othâ—icl mentioned in the book of Judges And yet we find the Ancientest learning the world possessed of besides the Bible is written in the Greek toâ—â—â—e So Justin Martyr observes speaking of this matter says â—e Si quis vel Pâ—etarâ—â— veterum vel Legislaterum vel â—isioâ—â—orâ—m vel Plilosopherum meminissâ— velit comperiet tamen illâ—s Libros sues â—râ—cerum composâ—â—sse literis Both Justin Martyr who lived within a hundred and thirty of Christ and â—uschiâ—s aâ—our two hundred aâ—ter him have evidently proved from the best and most acknowledged Calculations and from the mention that is made of Moses by Prophâ—â—e Writers such as Sanconiathon the Phaenician Antiquaâ—â—â— Berâ—sus Caldeus Ptolomens and Manâ—tho Egiptian Chronologers and amongst the Creacâ—aâ—s Artapanus Polemon Eupolemus and from Tregus Pompâ—ius epitomized by Justin and others that Moses was the first Legislator and lived long before any Authors of Books were extant And this is also very particularly affirmed by Dioderus Siculus the best and most eminent Historian the Gracians â—â—d who says himself he spent thirty years in Travel to search out the Antiquities of all Countries and to inable himself to write a General Story for he tells us in his History that â—e had learnt from the Egyptian priests that Moses was the First Legislator and Preceded all others in that kind We are told by many Ancient Authors that he lived with and to them St. Austin agrees in his 18th Book De civit Dei and by others That he Preceded Cecrops the founder of Athens after whom all those Ancient and memorable things fell out in Greece as Deucalions flood Phaetons sire the birth of Ericthonius the ripe of Proserpina the misteries of Ceres the â—â—titution of the Eliâ—â—â—â—â—â— sacrifices Triptolemus his art of Tilling the Ground the carrying away of Europa the birth of Apollo the building of Thebes by Cadmus after whom also where Bacchus Minos Perseus Esculapius Hercules and others whom we find mentioned in the Graecian Authors as most Ancient Nor had the Graecians any higher terms to express Antiquity by then Cecropian and Ogygian which they used to call all such things as they thought most Ancient from Cecrops and Ogyges in whose times they supposed Men like Mushroms sprung naturally out of the Earth about Athens But the certainest account that seems to be given of the direct Time in which Moses lived is this That he was Contemporary with Inachus the first King of the Archieâ—es In this Chronologers seem most generally to agree as Scaliger shews in his most learned Animadversions upon Eusebius his Chronologie Justin Martyr Tertullian Tatianus Clemens Alexandrinus Athenagoras Theophilus and many others of the Christian Writers affirm it and from many Heathen Authors we have direct Evidence for it Polemon in his first Book Rerum Graecanicarum is express in it and Apion both in his Commentary that he writ against the Jews and also in other of his Writings speaks of the Jews coming out of Egypt Regnante apud Archivos Inacho quibus sayes he prefuit Moses And Ptolomens Mendiâ—us an Egyptian that wrote the Chronicle of Egypt sayes that Moses governed the Jews and lead them out of Egypt quando Inachus Argis regnabat And 't is sufficiently known to all that are any way verst in Antiquity that Inachus and also Cecrops lived some hundreds of years before the Trojan War and long enough before any Books or the most Ancient Written Learning the world had was extant Tertullian in the 19 Chapter of his Apology tells the Romans they also as well as the Graecians glorified much in Antiquities sayes he Our Religion far out does all you can produce of that kind for the Books of one of our Prophets only viz. Moses wherein it seems God hath inclosed as in a Treasury all the Religion of the Jews and consequently all the Christian Religion preceding for many Ages together reach beyond the Ancientest you have even all your publick Monuments the Antiquity of your Originals the establishment of your Estate the birth of most part of the people the foundation of many great Cities all that most advanced by you in all Ages of History and memory of times the invention of Characters which are Interpreters of Sciences and the Guardians of all excellent things I think I may say more even your Gods Temples Oracles and Sacrifices Have you heard mention made of that great Prophet Moses He was contemporary with Inachus he preceded Danaus three hundred fourscore and thirteen years the Ancientest of all that have a name in your Histories He lived some hundreds of years before the ruine of Troy Every of the other Prophets succeeded Moses and yet the last of them all is of the same Age as your first Wise men Law-givers and Historians were
at large in the 12th Book of his Jewish Antiquities Some will needs imagine that Antiochus so far prevailed in this undertaking that the Scriptures then Extant were wholly Destroyed But the contrary is most evident and a special providence in their preservation sufficiently visible For no sooner was that storme over but the Bible was every where publickly extant having been particularly preserved by Matthias the Son of Asmonaeus and his sons who as Josephus says resolutely ventured their Lives in the doing it and also by other good men and was universally known in that Age amongst the Jews to be so Calvin in the first book of his Institutes observes That though the Jews had undergone the malice of manifold Enemies on all hands yet neither the Loss nor the Change nor the Corruption of their Law was ever by their worst Enemies objected against them And indeed how great soever their enmity was against their Religion yet they never denied but that Moses was the Author of it and that the Law they had was the Same He deliâ—cred at first Under the New Testament since the closure and completion of the Whole What a fâ—â—ious Persecution did the Bible esâ—ape in the time of Dioclesian Who after the grievous sufferings of the Christians in Mine fore Persecutions assaults them about the year 302 with the sorest and most cruel of all and with a full purpose to root Christianity utterly out of the world and destroy its very Name from the face of the Earth Euselius tells us that in the Nineteenth year of his Reign He publisht an Edict against the Christians and Christianity it self In which he so much Gloried that he caused a Pillar to be erected as his Memorial to all posterity with this Inscription Dioclesiano Casari Augusto superstitione Christi ubique deleta To Dioclesian the Emperour having abolished the superstition of Christ all the world over By that Edict he commands that the Christian-Churches should every where be demolished the Christians all Seized and Imprisoned Et quibuâ—cunque adhiâ—itis Machinis victimas Idolis immolare cogerentur That by all sorts of means fair and foul they should be brought to sacrifice unto his Idoâ—s And that the Scriptures should be every where sought for burnt and destroyed And whoever Retained them should be most sharply Tormented Dioclesian at this time had the command of the greatest part of the Habitable world For as one of the Roman Writers said Romanâ— spatium est Vrbis Orbis idem The Scriptures were then but in Written hand Men generally Quak'd with the fear of that Raging Tyrant Very many Apostatized and delivered up the Bible to his wrath and were thereupon branded with the name of Traditores of which and of the whole business we might perhaps have had a larger account had not The Life of Deoclesian written by Eusthenius his Secretary been since lost For As Baronius has rightly observed in his Annalls We have now no Writer who did at that time Historically set down the Actions of that Emperour Yet God by his Providence delivered this Book out of his hand Disappointed his fury and suffered him not to quench the Light of these Divine Laws The Christians at that time Tired out the Inventions of their Enemies in finding out ways to torment them and by their constant and patient suffering the utmost of humane misery even wearied out their Executioners One remarkable passage we have in Euseblus that happened upon this occasion A noble man in Nicomedia of eminent Quality hearing this Edict against the Christians and the Bible published at Nicemedâ—a After it was Read and openly fixed to a publick Pillar in the presence of Dioclesian himself Maximinius Galerius Constantius and other the Chiefest persons in the Empire for 't was usual with the Emperors to come themselves in Person with their chiefest Attendanâ—s to hear their own Edicts against the Christians proclaimed to see the Christians tormented and to make themselves sport with their miseries this Noble man had such a zeal for the Bible and the Christian Religion that before the Emperors face he took down that prophane and impious Edict and with a Holy indignation openly tore it to pieces and and thereby willingly exposed himself to the utmost suffering the fury and rage of the Emperour could any way make him the subject of Two things are usually urged in diminution of the â—â—ble and its Authority upon a quite contrary account We are told by some The Bible has been so far from being preserved intire in the whole or in its parts that first all that part of the Bible that was then extant when the people of Israel were carryed into Babylon periâ—â—ed in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and that Esdras wrote it himself all over again upon their return and that we have now so much of the Bible only from Him and as he Re-pâ—â—ned it In this Mr. Hobs in the 33 Chapter of his Leviathan where he has not failed to insinuate all such things as might gratifie men of Sceptical notions about the Bible is very positive and tells us The Books of the Old Testament are derived to us from no other time then that of Esdras and were retrived by him when they were lost And Secondly we are told that many particular Books and Writings penned by Divine inspiration and once part of the Bible have been since consumed by Time and are now wholly lost out of the World The first That so much of the Old Testament as was then extant which was the whole as we have it save some part of the Psalms the Prophecies of Ezeâ—iel Daniel Haggai Zachary and Masachai and the Books of Esther Ezra and Nehemiah was totally lost and all the Copies destroyed in the ruine of Jerusalem and the Temple is an assertion very weakly grounded And there are very sufficient Reasons to perswade us to believe the contrary First Weakly grounded for there is no other ground for it but that in an Apocryphal Book that goes under the Title of the fourth Book of Esdras a Book every where stuffed with Childish and fabulous Stoties There we find this absurd fiction that Esdras should speak unto God and tell him Thy Law is burnt and no man knoweth the things that thou hast done and therefore desired to be inspired to write it all over again and to wrire all that had been done in the World from the beginning And that after he had been forty days and nights with God in an apish foolish imitation of Moses and had taken a Potion God had prepared for him he dictated all the Bible over again to five men Now of how little credit this Relation being no where found but in this Book ought to be with any considering man will appear if we consider that this Book was not only constantly rejected as Apocryphal by the Jewish Church as a counterfeit under Esdras his name and none of his but has been so by all
such attempts have still been discovered and openly sham'd How many Hereticks have carryed about their own Confutation whilest they possessed this Book and yet have not been suffer'd to change or alter such passages as have been most Cogent against themselves The Bible passed through the Arian-world with all those plain Evidences it contains of the Divinity of our Saviour When Emperours Câ—uncils and indeed upon the matter the whole Christian-world wâ—â—etainted with that Heresie the Bible scapd the infection when the alteration of two or three plain texts would have done them more service then all the volumns they wrote in their own Defence And great designs were on foot that way yet they were still disappointed as is evident by what we find in St. Ambrose The Jews to this day need no other Confutation then their own Bible Moses and the Prophets in whom they trust are theiâ— greatest Accusers All sort of Hereticks to this day are possessed of the Bible as Uriaâ— was of Davids Letters to Joab which contained his own Ruine and as Goliaâ— was of hiâ— sword which served at last to cut off his own head Secondly The success and effect of this Book since its conveyance gives in a Signal and most undeniable Evidence to its Divinity If we consider the ways and means by which it has introduced it self and upon what terms the Religion contained in it has gained that reception we find it has had amongst Man-kind 'T is of admirable consideration that a Religion directly opposite to the whole corrupt interest of humane Nature and calling men to the highest Mortification and Self-denial upon the account of an Invisible World to come nakedly proposed by men upon a worldly account always inconsiderable without any the least Earthly supports A Religion perioding the Jewish Religion and totally subverting all other Religions A Religion opposed disowned to the utmost by the Jews themselves though it derived it self wholly from them and pretended to be the natural product of their Religion and the true Completion of all they believed and expected a Religion in oppostion of which the whole World besides were agreed and indeed both Jews and Heathens perfectly concurred I say 'T is of admirable consideration that such a Religion so circumstanced against all the Religion the Wisdom and the Force of the World should at first make its entrance and be embraced by so great a part of Man-kind and within the space of thirty years or thereabouts after its first Publication for so it was be spread not only throughout all parts of the Roman Empire but also amongst the Parthians and remotest Heathens To no other Cause but it s own Innate worth and the Divine evidence from Heaven attending it can it with any tolerable colour of reason be ascribed The zeal men had for all other Religions in which they were Educated sufficiently prompted them to hate abhor and persecute it The Learning and the Wisdom of the whole World was employed to render it despicable and to bring it under contempt And all the force of the Roman Empire was every where violently at work for its total Suppression and Extirpation And yet against all these seeming invincible oppositions did the Bible prevail The power of that great Empire could not withstand the naked proposal of a simple Truth And both Judaism in the main of it as a National Establismment and Heathenism finally fell before it This Book and the Religion it contains as it avows it self to be solely from God and comes to us with a commanding voice from Heaven speaks to us in God's own Name and upon that single account requires our obedience And those that wrote it neither had nor pretended to have any other Authority but what was Divine and from Above So it has introduced it self by Means suitable thereunto Never was there at first any Force used to compel men nor any Arts practised to deceive men about this matter No man can prove out of any Story that ever the Apostles or the Primitive Professors of this Religion raised Arms to introduce or promote it Or that any Humane Authority did countenance or assist it The Christian Religion has this to say for it self above all others That 't is to debtor to the Sword either in a Civil or Military way Neither the Sword of Justice nor the Sword of War can lay any claim to it as a Product of theirs The greatest part of the Roman World â—ad embraced it and were become Criâ—tians before Constantine publickly owned it It ows nothing to any violent course for its Primitive Reception nor indeed to any Humane contrivement Neither the subtilty of Philosophers nor the Eloquence of Orators assisted in this matter It never advanced one step further in its first publication than its own Innate Excellency the Divine evidence attending it procured it acceptance nor did it ever gain a Convert but where it could approve it self by Divine Evidences to the Reasons Consciences of men to be Divine I make a peremptory demand to all Antiscriptural men to grant me this as a truth not capable of any denial That for three hundred years together the Gospel by its own Divine strength withstood the most furious and violent Winds Tides of all humane opposition and by no other assistance but what was purely Divine travelled most parts of the World over It offered it self to mens reception upon no other terms but by an Appeal to the Judgment and Concience and was contenteâ— to stand and fall by the Rational determination of every mans own Breast and sâ— prevailed Such who embraced it haâ— no other way of Contest but Holiness oâ— living and Patience in suffering 〈◊〉 both which they were very Eminent To the first their very Enemies the Heathens bore testimony Pliny and others speak of the Christians harmless and holy behaviour For the latter Never was any Religion so begun and propagated by such indefatigable Sufferings How few Martyrs for Religion can the Heathen World boast of If we admit Socrates for one how few Successors had he And those few they pretend to seem by all Circumstances to be such as had no other end but to perpetuate their own names to Posterity by suffering for such things as they thought the World would highly magnifie But for Christian-Religion we find innumerable sufferings of Men and Women of all Ranks Qualities Ages and Conditions In many of which we cannot suppose any thing but Conscience and hopes of a future Reward could possibly be the Motive Being persons of such mean parts and conditions as could no way be thought to design a Name to themselves hereafter Nor indeed can we reasonably suppose an esteem upon Earth and vain-glory could be the ground upon which any of them suffer'd when we consider they suffered for a Religion the very name of which was every where Odious and Detestable and the Profession of it brought nothing but shame and contempt It swims down to
these latter Ages in whole streams of Blood that ran from its Primitive Martyrs God pleasing to introduce the Gospel at first without any thing Humane to befriend it that we might be for ever ascertained of its Author Who but God himself by a Power from above can we reasonably imagine could have enabled a few Mean Ignorant and Contemptible men so to confront the whole World and in the Evening of it when other Religions had so long lasted and were so fast rooted to erect a Religion destructive to all the rest and to break through all the Opposition that the Religion of the Jews and Heathens the Philosophy and Learning of all the knowing parts of the World the Laws and force of the Roman-Empire in its greatest splendor and strength could form against it And what Doctrine but one in its own Nature Diâ—â—â—â— and attended with the visible effects 〈◊〉 Almighty Power to own and juâ—â—â—â—â— can we conceive could have 〈◊〉 the World so to bow before it How ridiculous does it appear to suppose a company of mean Impostors that had neither God nor Men besides themselves to befriend them nor any other Foundadation but a Design in the highest manner to cheat and abuse the World could have effected all this and that they should finally so prevail and impose the grossest Delusion imaginable upon Mankind against all such Opposition Had I no other consideration to induce me to believe the Bible but what ariseth from hence this one seems singly sufficient to me to justifie its Divinity against all reasonable suspition of Imposture and for ever to silence all the doubts that can be at any time made about it What greater assurance can we have that a Doctrine is Divine and comes from above then when we see it has ventured it self upon its own Divine Evidence against all Humane Opposition and singly by that prevailed and spread it self all the World over Neither Arms nor Councils neither the Policy of Julian nor the Sword of Dioclesian could put a stop to its progress Had God disowned the Gospel at first Nay had he not Eminently and Visibly witnessed to it from Heaven we cannot possibly imagine how it could have taken one step forward It had doubtless as it was then circumstanced been stifled in its first birth and buried in perpetual silence We find all the Religion of the Heathens has still grown up under the shadow of Humane Power and Authority and has still decayed when Humane props have been removed I challenge any man to shew me any other Religion that ever prevailed in the World without Humane help and that ever stood out the brunt of Persecution All other Religions but what have been founded upon the Bible have still fallen before the Power of the Sword 'T is only the Religion of the Jews and the Christians founded at first upon the Bible and the Miracles wrought to confirm the Doctrine contain'd in it that has weather'd out all attempts for its eradication 'T is a marvelous evidence of that solemn and divine foundation upon which the Jewish Church and the Old Testament were at first established That notwithstanding all that the Jews have suffered and their very Being in a National way and their National Worship in which their Religion chiefly consisted be utterly extinguished yet still they retain their Profession submit to a Yoke of most burdensome Ceremonies remain dispersed in the World a Monument of Scripture-verity and so many standing Witnesses to the Truth of many eminent Predictions both in the Old and New Testament And thus from the success of this Book also since its first conveyance and all the circumstances that have attended the progress of it since its first publication have we as great an assurance as in such a Case we can well expect that God himself and no other is in truth the Author of it I come in the fourth and last place to consider this Book in it self in the Matter of it as at the present we find it and as it now lies before us In the doing of which I mean not to insist separately and abstractedly upon any Internal evidence that results from the matter of the Scripture it self but to take it as it ought to be in Conjunction with the former and all other Collateral proof 'T is neither Reasonable nor Warrantable to disjoyn the proof God has afforded us of his Word and lay the weight of its Justification upon any one single Evidence For when God commands us to believe and obey this Book as his Word and imposeth the highest penalty upon our not doing it he layes not the stress of his Command or the Penalty nor ought we upon any one particular sort of Evidence External or Internal but upon the whole intire proof he has made to us of it and all those means he has afforded for our Conviction and Satisfaction about it When we are upon a general proof of the Bible 't is not necessary to insist upon any Internal Evidence that results from the Bible it self as singly sufficient to prove it or enter into any debate whether it really be so or no because we have all the Cumulative advantage of an External justification And if all together be sufficient to prove the Bible to be what we that profess the Christian Religon take it to be 't is enough for our purpose And that the matter of the Bible it self with what ever Evidence will arise from thence is not to be abstractedly insisted on from other Collateral proof nor that any Collateral proof will prevail in this Case without there be also an Innate Evidence resulting from the matter of the Bible it self so that a Conjunction of the Evidence in both kinds is absolutely necessary to establish a general proof will be thus made to appear The Bible as hath been said consists of three parts Doctrinal Prophetical and Historical whatever Evidence we have from the Scripture it self to prove its own Divinity must needs chiefly arise from the Doctrinal part Because the Prophetical and Historical part can never be fully justified without Forraign proof we cannot know the History of the Bible to be certainly true from the Bible it self Nor can we sufficiently prove any Prophesies in any part of the Bible to have been actually fâ—llfilled because they are said in other places of that Book so to be For 't were to beg the Question and admit the Book to be true when we are debating whether it be so or no! This we may urge in proof of the Historical and Prophetical part from that Divine Evidence that comes from the Doctrinal that we find such History and such Prophesie in an admirable Conjunction with such a Doctrine subservient to it tending to the establishment of it and inviron'd with all probable Circumstances of being true both from the nature of the Prophesies and also from the excellent Manner of their fulfilling and from the rare Method of the History in
Moses I mean the true antient Berosus and not the latter Counterfeit of him sets down the Story of it in the very same way that Moses does Begins his History Ante Aquarum cladem Famosam quâ universus perut orbis And sayes There was only eight Persons saved Cyril in his first Book against Julian shews that Alexander Polybistor and Abidene under the feigned names of Saturn and Xyfuthrus have writ for the most part the same Story that Moses has done of the Flood and of the Ark and the Place of its Resting And in very many other antient Authors have we particular Narratives of it And 't is evident that many Poetical Fictions and Fabulous Stories that we find amongst the Antient Heathen-Writers had their derivations from thence So that to doubt about the Fact of what Moses has written in this particular were extreamly unreasonable For 't were to deny what is eminently witnessed unto by several Historians of several Countreys and to withstand the Stream of an Universal Tradition The Story of Building the Babylontan Tower is particularly set down by the same Alexander Polyhistor and Abidene as we find them quoted at large by Eusebius They tell us That Men would needs in despite of the Godds build up a Tower to the Sun in the place where Babylon now is And when they had built it very high the Godds overthrew it And that at that time began the diversity of Languages And 't is obvious to the commonest understanding That all that Fiction of the Poets about the Gyants warring against Heaven is but a corruption of this Story The Burning of Sodom is mentioned by many of the best credited Authors by Diodorus Saculus Strabo Tacitus Pliny and Solinus And 't were easie to produce the like Testimonies to the most eminent Passages that Moses has set down That the People of Israel conquered the Land of Canaan dispossest the Inhabitants and setled themselves in Palestine is a thing so notorious from the Effects that 't is capable of no denyal And we have a large account of many particulars of it in Procopius Eupolemus and other Authors who wrote of Joshua Samuel Saul David in whom according to the Prediction of Moses the Government of that People came into the Tribe of Judah and others mentioned in the Sacred Story That there was such a King as Solomon that built a Temple at Jerusalem Josephus in his first Book against Appion proves from the antient Chronicles of the Tyrians which sayes he they have kept with great diligence And therein mention is made of Solomons League with the King of Tyre and of his building the Temple at Jerusalem and the exact time of it A hundred forty three years and eight months before the building of Carthage The same account we have in Eupolemus Alexander Polyhistor Haecateus Dius a Phenician and many others who have written so largely about that Temple that as some have observed There was not a Vessel nor any Tool or Instrument in it which they have not particularly mentioned which exactness we find not in any Heathen Story in the Descriptions of any Temples of their own The Captivity of the Jews in Babylon Cyrus his obtaining the Persian Empire and his Conquest of Babylon is all punctually set down by prophane Writers Alexander Polyhistor writes an exact Story of Jeremiah's Prophesie and of the Captivity And Diocles and Berosus both give an account of the Jews deliverance by Cyrus and that they were Captives in Babylon 70 years And Alexander Polyhistor and Haecateus both write of Cyrus his re-building the Temple of Jerusalem Daniels Predictions about the four Monarchies and other things have been visibly fulfilled beyond all denyal Porphiry so raged heretofore at that Prophetical Instance of the Truth of the Bible that he seeks by all means to evade it spends his whole twelfth Book which he wrote against the Christians to that purpose and finds no other way at last to do it but by an absurd pretence That those Prophesies about the four Monarchies were written long after Daniels death by some other in the times of Antiochas Which is sufficiently confuted Not only by the credible relation we have in History that Daniels Prophesie was shewed by Iaddus the High-Priest of the Jews to Alexander who lived many years before Antiochus when he was marching toward Jerusalem with an intention to destroy it who finding himself so particularly in that Prophesie prophesied of spared the City thereupon But because the 70 Interpreteâ—â— who tranâ—tated the Old Testament for Ptolomy about a hundred years before Antiochus tranâ—â—â—ated the Book of Daniel which was then extant and part of the Bible After the Captivity t is clear from all Story that the Jews that returned out of Babylon continued under a National establishment though not under a succession of Kingly Government from the Posterity of David for God had declared by Jeremiah that none of the Seed of Jeconaih should any more sit upon the Throne of David had Sovereign Jurisdiction among them which the ten Tribes had wholly lost and long before were totally deprived of Nay were still govern'd by some of themselves till the Romans imposed Herod and Idumaean upon them in whose time our Saviour was born So that the Scepter did not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his feet till Shiloe came For the Matters of Fact relating to the New Testament 'T is not possible for any reasonable Man to dis-believe there was such a Man in Fact as our Saviour and such Men as the Apostles that lived in those times that erected the Christian Religion because of the succession of it in multitudes of Professors ever since and the written Account we have of it Not only from Christians themselves but from Jews and Heathens in those times Tacitus and Suetonius both make mention of Christ Tacitus in the 15th Book of his Annals speaking of Nero's cruelty to the Christians sayes The Author of them was one Christ who in the Reign of Tiberius was punished with death by Pontius Pilate Procurator of Judea Josephus speaks of him Pliny Suetonius and others write of the Christians extant in those times of their Principles their manner of Living and of their Sufferings Suetonius sayes in the Life of Nero Christianos genus hominum maleficae superstitionis suppliciis affixit That he pumshed the Christians a sort of men of a magical superstition Many Historical Passages in the Gospels are attested to us by Heathen and Jewish-Writters though 't is most certain the Roman Historians of that Age knew not much of the Affairs of Palestine as appears by what they have writ concerning the Jews especially Tacitus who appears very grosly ignorant both about them and their Religion The Star that appeared at our Saviours Birth is mentioned by Pliny lib. 2. chap. 5. And by the Philosopher Chalcidius largely in his Comment upon Platoes Timaeas Herodi killing the Children in Bethlehem by Macrobius The Eclipse of
Of the first peopling of America from whence it was first peopled or at what time little account can be expected nor can any Objection be reasonably made from thence in this Matter because of the perfect silence in all Antient Story of any such place and because of our total ignorance of it till of late but there is ground sufficient to believe that 't is of a much later Plantation than the other three parts of the World For there are not Records found amongst the People of that Countrey that exceed a thousand years and as most tell us from thence Not above eight hundred The exact and punctual account of this whole Matter we have from Josephus and Eusebâ—us heretofore and from many learned men since But especially from the most excellent Bochart who has herein far exceeded them all and whose most successful endeavours this way have not onely most evidently cleared the Truth of Sacred History in this particular but indeed the Whole of what Moses has wrote is very greatly justified thereby Secondly Those Prophetical Predictions of our Saviour in the New Testament concerning the miseries of the Jews their being led Captive into all Nations the Besieging of Jerusalem and such a Ruine of the Temple as that one stone should not be left upon another with many other Prophesies relating to that business have had such an eminent and notorious fulfilling in the times of Vespatian Trajan Adrian and since as greatly justifies the whole of the Gospel and much assures us of the truth of all that our Saviour has spoken What we find in Tacitus Hegysippus and other Heathen Writers but especially the Story of Josephus their own Historian has written of that which happened to the Jeus their City and Temple about forty years after the sufferings of Christ is so exactly corresponding to what he himself foretold and is set down in the 24th of St. Matthew that no instance can be given that any future events were ever so plainly and fully foretold and so punctually fulfilled in any Age Nor can any impartial man consider that strange Agreement there is in every Particular between what then happened and what our Saviour foretold so many years before without being greatly affected with it And how fully competent Josephus was to write that Story may be judged by what he himself sayes in his first Book against Appion I my self sayes he have composed a most true Story of those Wars and of every particular thing there done As well I might having been present in all those Affairs For I was Captain of the Galilaeanâ— amongst our Nation so long as any resistance could be made against the Romans And then it fell out that I was taken by the Romans And being Prisoner unto Titus and Vespatian they caused me to be an eye-witness of all things that pass't First In Bonds and Fetters And afterwards freed from them I was brought from Alexandria with Titus when he went to the Siege of Jerusalem So that nothing could then pass whereof I had not notice For beholding the Roman Army I committed all things to writing with all possible diligence My self did onely manage all Matters disclosed unto the Romans by such as yeelded themselves for that I only did perfectly understand them Lastly Being at Rome and having now leasure all businesses being past I used the help of some for the Greek Tongue And so I published a History of all that had happened in the aforesaid War Which History of mine is so true that I fear not to call Vespatian and Titus Emperors in those Wars to witness for them I first gave a Copy of that Book to them after to many noble Romans present in those Wars I sold also many of them to our own Nation to such as understood the Greek Language Amongst whom were Julius Archelaus Herod the Honest and the most worthy King Agrippa who do all testifie that my History containeth nothing but truth who would not have been silent if any thing either out of Ignorance or Flattery I had changed or omitted in any particular The City of Jerusalem and the Temple being about forty years after our Saviours time by Vespation and Titus totally ruined and demolished The Jews after that three times indeavoured to rebuild their Temple The first time was under the Emperor Adrian in the year after Christ 136. Which attempt had no other effect but the slaughter of fifty thousand of them with many other sad Desolations which we find set down at large by that noble Historian Dion Cassius Their second attempt was under Constantine which he soon quashed but not without great Expressions of his Displeasure against them cutting off their Ears and branding their Bodies and making most of them Slaves and Vagabonds Their last attempt to rebuild it was in the dayes of Julian when they were so far from being any way hindered that they were highly encouraged by Julian himself with Money and all Materials on purpose as Sozomon tells us to vilify the Christian Religion and confront our Saviours Prediction The Story of it we have from one that we are sure could have no design to befriend the Christians Ammianus Marcellinus a Heathen-Historian and a Souldier at that time in Julians Army He tells us with what immoderate Expences and indefatigable Industry the Jews by the help of Julian set about it intending to make it more famous than ever And that to expedite the Work Julian appointed one Alyppius a Person of great quality in his Army to oversee it and assist in it And at last concludes his whole Relation with these words Cum itaque rei idem fortiter instaret Alyppius juvaretque Provinciae Rector Metuendi globi flammarum prope fundamenta crebis assultibus erumpentes fecere locum exustis aliquoties operantibus inaccessum hocque modo elemento destinatius repellente cessavit incaeptum Am. Marcel lib. 23. When therefore this Alyppius set eagerly on the work being assisted by the Governour of that Province dreadful Balls of Fire bursting forth with often assaults near the Foundation made the place the Workmen being several times devoured with the flames inaccessible And after this manner the Element resisting as with some kind of destiny the design was given over This was that final stroke from Heaven that put a period to all endeavours of rebuilding that place and to all future attempts of restoring again the Jewish Church-state and Polity And how great an Evidence is it to the truth of the Gospel and the Whole of what our Saviour has spoken to sind all these Predictions against his great Opposers and Crucifiers so strangely and so exactly and in so visible and notorious a manner fulfilled And in truth that general prophetick Spirit we find throughout the Bible those manifold plain and direct Predictions 't is every where fill'd with of things future and to come tells us much of its Divinity and greatly assures us It could not be an effect
and by which were we possessed of them they would much more easily have been reconciled and understood The Jews were very curious and exact in the preservation of things of that Nature and good Reason they had so to be for amongst the Heathens want of Posterity might be supplied by Adoption but the Jews were obliged to a strict succession in Alliance and Kindred The whole of this matter is most judiciously discoursed of by the learned Grotius in his Annotatious upon these two Evangelists to which the exact disquisition of all the particulars being too large a task for this undertaking I fear not to refer any impartial Reader for a sufficient Answer to all that can be reasonably objected against the Bible from hence there being nothing contained in either of these two Genealogies that of St. Matthew and that of St. Luke that in the least implies any direct contradiction nor is there any such difference between them or between them and any other part of the Bible one of which must be punctually made good or else this Objection is of no force as appears wholly uncapable of any Reconciliation But on the contrary 'T is evident the Evangelists do after an admirable manner consist and agree with themselves Although in order to many excellent ends and to clear us all Doubts about our Saviours descent they differently account Which upon the forementioned Grounds can seem hard to none to conceive Fourthly They tell us There is much contained in the Bible that seems of too Mean and Low a nature to come from such a wise and Excellent Being as God and by no means fit to be Ascribed to Him Such are many Stories and many Similitudes and divers Expressions we find there On the one hand they reproch this Book for containing things too High to be Credited And on the other hand they object against it as containing many things too Mean to be Regarded In the one they impeach Gods Power and imply some things are too Great for him to Effect And by the other cast a contempt upon the highest effects of his Condescention and Goodness for nothing can more Savour of it then such a familiar way of conversing with Men 'T is true that the Scriptures have by divers Similitudes Resemblances and Allegories made the whole World and all we converse with some way or other Hieroglyphical to us of Divinity Have expressed somewhat of Religion to us by all Parts of the Creation and by the most common imployments of Humane life Then which nothing could make Religion look with a more Familiar aspect upon us nor render the Mysteries of it more easy to be embraced by all capacities Nor is any thing more likely to preserve the memory of things Supernatural and Divine in the minds of men then when they are expressed to them by such things with which they are sure to have a constant converse while they stay in this World Whatsoever we find in the Bible of this Kind stands sufficiently discharged from all Reasonable exception because 't is visibly but adjusting the Notions of Religion to the impotency of many capacities And of the meanest expressions either in Similitudes Allegories Metaphors or otherwise that we find in the Scriptures These two things must be acknowledged by which they are enough secured against all just and rational Contempt First That they are such as in their own nature are proper and apt to informe in all those Cases in which they are made use of And Secondly They all appear to have a direct tendency to instruct men in the Noblest and Sublimest Truths And are evidently Conducing to the Highest and most Excellent Attainments that Mankind are Capable of These and such like Objections have often faced the Bible But have given very little stop to its Progress Indeed all occasions given though by its worst Enemies for the Discussion of it have turn'd greatly to its Advantage and still made it appear less capable of any Just and Solid Exception The Bible is a Book that will endure Discourse The Deeper we search into all parts of it still the surer we are to find a Divine bottome 'T is true that the manner of its composure is suitable to its nature and end Savours altogether of the wisdome of another world 'T is evidently design'd to subvert all corrupt Interests and debase mens proud opinions of their own knowledge 'T is writ after a sort that seems peculiar to God and in no such way as Mankind use to treat one with another And therefore 't is no wonder if Some men both Object against it and Reproch it Divers things there are which in the Reading of this Book we are rationally obliged to Consider and by the due consideration whereof the Grounds of most mens exceptions would be removed First the Scriptures appear to be Designed as a General Store-house of Instruction and Satisfaction to all sorts of Capacities and Conditions to the end of the world And therefore it can be no very easie task upon good Grounds to condemn any Part either as Useless or Improper Secondly Many passages in the Scripture relate to things past and long since transacted of the circumstances of which we are not fully informed And many passages were accomodated to things then well known which we in these After-ages are ignorant of Others relate much to things future and to come The Wisdome and Excellency of which will not so fully appear till Hereafter And so we see it was in the Old Testament The use and Reason of many things then could not be so fully discern'd till explain'd and interpreted by the Gospel The Book of Ruth might then happly have been judged by some as an Impertinent Addition to the rest of the Bible But since the writing of the New we see what an excellent use there was of it to make good our Saviours natural discent in the flesh according to the promise He that saw no more then the Old Testament might have thought that Historical discourse of Melchisedâ—c that we find in Moses to be very defective mentioning so considerable a Transaction of so Great a Man in those early times of the world without giving any further account of him But now under the New we are informed how Eminent a Projection of Divine Wisdome was wrapt up in the seeming Imperfection of that Story and that the Eternal Generation of our Saviour in his Divinity in a strange and unthought off way was Represented and Figured thereby Thirdly Many parts of the Bible relate to the Customes and Laws of particular Places and Countreys Without the knowledg of which No man can be a Competent Judge of them In the Books of Esther Ezra and Nehemiah many things relate to the Customes and Laws of the Persians In the Prophets divers things are not to be understood without a reference to the Histories of several Countries to which they Relate In the New Testament many passages refer to the Laws and Customes